These
notes were found in the papers of the late C. S.
Mott. At one time Mott was General Motors largest
stockholder and was also a one-time mayor of Flint,
Michigan. He was a good friend of Lloyd G. Copeman.

Sunday,
August 27, 1933 by C. S. Mott

Roy
Brownell (prominent Flint lawyer and first cousin
of Copeman) came over with his car and drove me
over to Lloyd Copeman’s country place south
of Lapeer and just east of Hadley. He is an inventive
genius. He invented the Copeman Electric Automatic
Stove, which was built in Flint for a while and
is now taken over by the Westinghouse Electric
Company. He also invented the rubber trays for
electric refrigerators, from which he is getting
a nice revenue. He has invented a lot of other
things, some which will show up well. He has now
worked out a process for covering leather and
fabrics, etc. with a coating of rubber or latex
in such a way that it can be stripped off clean
when the article is ready for use. For example,
in the making of ladies’ shoes the tops
of many are either delicate leather or have to
be cleaned. Through this process the covering
can be taken off by the purchaser just before
wearing and insures a perfect article. The same
thing applies to upholstering on chairs, sofas,
etc. – subject not only to damage or deterioration
in manufacturing, but also in case of fire, water
or smoke damage, dampness or suchlike. He says
he can also spray this on automobile upholstering,
even after it has been installed, so that when
the car leaves the factory in proper condition,
it will be fresh and perfect when the customer
buys it and strips the cover off. There is no
limit to this chap’s ideas.

For
the sake of information – he has been raising
ducks wholesale, some geese and now chickens.
He is building a place to hold about 60 hens,
each in its own enclosure, some 36 inches square,
where the hen is going to spend all her useful
life alone. She gets the usually daylight while
it exists and early morning and evening light
from lamps so she has only six hours of darkness.
The air is to be conditioned and regulated and
she is to be fed scientific food. The eggs she
lays automatically roll out of the nest and are
automatically registered, so a check-up is made
of the exact production of each hen. When she
is finished her egg-laying life she is sold for
meat. I do not know much about hen philosophy;
her deep thoughts in spare time or her sex life,
but with a future before her as laid out by Copeman,
I do not think she has much to look forward to.
I do not know how his experiments will come out,
but presume that Lloyd will get some kind of an
answer.

He
is going to get a special strain of Brahma chickens
and he proposes to caponize the males and expects
to grow them to weigh up to 15 pounds, which is
quite a weight for a chicken. Heaven help the
chicken family on Copeman’s place. Lloyd
is taking the joy out of life for both sexes.
If one had to be a chicken, I think it would be
pleasanter, while life lasted, to live on an old-fashioned
farm.

Regarding
Copeman, one of the things he is working on is
refrigeration with dry ice, which is frozen carbonic
acid gas, and now that beer has come back he is
developing containers of one to five gallons or
more for holding draught beer, the idea being
that in the case of the smaller size receivers
they will be taken and sent to the brewery and
filled, and at the same time charged with dry
ice which will keep the beer cold for a week and
as the cool carbonic gas passes off the dry ice
will pass through the beer with carbonic gas and
revitalize it, keeping it in a very lively condition.
When very large containers are used, it is expected
that the brewery will come around with a tank
wagon and fill direct from same and also charge
with dry ice. It seems to me a very logical and
feasible proposition.

Another
interesting thing I was yesterday at Copeman’s
farm is this. He has a pair of domesticated wild
mallard ducks, which make their home around his
yard. Apparently the drake neglected his home
work and his lady friend paying a visit to Copeman’s
flock of large, white Peking ducks and as a result
Mr. Mallard duck has a find brood of step-children
which do not look at all like him, being unmistakably
marked with the white from the bachelor camp.
When I saw the family they were all together,
and the drake had his eye cocked on the family
and I was wondering what he was thinking of.